Awarding of Transfer Credit and Credit by Examination or Petition

No. 4-21a

Rev 05-04-12

Date 4-20-77

I. Reference

WSU Catalog for specific applications

II. General Policy

Weber State University accepts transfer credit from regionally accredited colleges and universities and awards credit for competencies gained outside the university as measured by way of standard examination such as the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) and the Advanced Placement program (AP), the International Baccalaureate (IB), Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES), by special examination administered by individual departments, and by petition.

III. Transfer Credit

At the University there are no age limits on transfer credits. A department may set age limits for credits applied toward its degrees and programs by obtaining approval through the University curriculum process. Chairs of those departments that set age limits may make exceptions for individual students.

Transfer credit is awarded in accordance with the following stipulations:

A. Transcripts must be submitted to the Admissions Office from all previously attended colleges and universities. Receipt of the transcript is noted on the student's admission file.

B. If the sending institution is regionally accredited, all credits are entered onto the student's Weber State University transcript. Regarding course content, instances where the content of a transferred course may be comparable to a WSU course, relevant department chairs will determine whether the transfer course may be substituted for the WSU course. When applicable, the established formula for quarter to semeste conversion will be applied.

C. If the sending institution is not regionally accredited, transfer credits may be accepted under the following guidelines:

1. Credit may be accepted only if the course is deemed to be equivalent to a course in the WSU catalog.

2. Specific course credit may be applied by the Admissions Office if recommended and approved by the appropriate department chair with the Application for Credit form but only under the following guidelines:

a. The student must present such evidence as the department deems necessary, which could include an official transcript, a course description, a course syllabus, evidence of work completed, or proof of completion by examination.

b. Credit must be evaluated by the appropriate department and the specific equivalency approved by the department chair through the Application for Credit form.

c. If transfer work is deemed equivalent to WSU course work, the department chair may grant credit with or without waiver of specific courses.

D. If the sending institution is part of the USHE, credits will be evaluated according to the Utah State Board of Regents Policy on transfer credit (R470-7). For the purpose of General Education, Brigham Young University, Brigham Young University (Idaho), LDS Business College, and Westminster College will be considered the same as USHE institutions.

E. For the purpose of General Education, institutions accredited by one of the six regional accreditation associations (recognized by the US Department of Education) will be considered the same as USHE institutions. Specifically, Associate of Art and Associate of Science degrees from regionally accredited institutions will fulfill Weber State University's General Education requirements.

IV. Credit by ExaminationCredit by examination will be awarded with the following stipulations:

A. A student must either be officially registered or have an established WSU transcript at the time the request for credit or examination is made.

B. Credit is not awarded if duplicated by previous examinations, petition or course work for which a student received a grade (A-E, I, T, W, UW, CR, NC).

C. This credit is not considered part of the residence requirement.

D. This credit, although graded on a credit/no credit basis, may be used to satisfy major, minor, and general education requirements.

E. Credit by standard examination (i.e. CLEP, AP) is awarded at the discretion of the appropriate department and according to departmentally approved guidelines.

F. Credit by special examination may be awarded at the discretion of academic departments according to the following guidelines.

1. Academic departments will provide an annual list of courses that may be challenged.

2. The department chair or designee may interview the candidate and determine whether or not the student has sufficient background in the area to justify giving a special examination.

3. The faculty member sends the examination results to the records office where the credit is posted to the student's permanent record.

4. The credit that can be earned (overall and in each sitting) will be determined by each department.

5. A student may not take examinations in more than one subject area at any one sitting.

6. A student may take an examination for any given course(s) one time only.

7. A fee will be charged for each sitting.

8. Veteran's benefits will not be paid for credit earned by special examination.

V. Credit by Petition

Credit by petition is awarded by the admissions office and appropriate academic departments according to guides published by the American Council on Education (ACE) and according to the following guidelines.

A. Military Credit is administered in accordance with the ACE Guide to the Evaluation of Military Service Experiences and articulation agreements with government agencies.

1. Elective Credit may be applied by the admissions office.

2. Specific course credit may be awarded by the appropriate department chair(s) with the Application for Credit form.

B. Credit for prior experiential learning and industrial or commercial training may be awarded provided that such awarding is carefully monitored and documented.

1. Departments awarding experiential learning credit must have written criteria which assure its academic equivalence to credit earned by traditional means.

2. Credit for prior experiential learning may be granted only at the undergraduate level.

3. Before credit for prior experiential learning becomes part of the student's permanent record, the student must have completed thirty credit hours with a GPA of 2.25 or better to establish evidence of a satisfactory learning pattern.

4. Credit may be granted with the approval of the department chair only upon the recommendation of teaching faculty who are appropriately qualified and who are on a regular appointment with the college on a continuing basis.

5. Credit may be granted only for documented learning that ties the prior experience to the theories and data of the relevant academic fields.

6. Credit may be granted only for documented learning which falls within the regular curricular offerings of the institution.

7. Credit for prior experiential learning may constitute no more than 25% of the credits needed for a degree or certificate.

8. No assurances will be made as to the number of credits to be awarded prior to the completion of the institution's review process.

9. Credit may be granted only to enrolled students and is to be identified on the student's transcript as credit for prior experiential learning.

VI. The Foreign Language Department has a separate procedure to accept results from approved foreign language testing agencies and to allow petitions to gain credit for certain lower division courses by passing specific higher level courses with a grade of C or better.